Walking past a music store a person can develop strong desires to play an instrument. A favorite song pops into the head, visions of groupies lining up to hear the latest tune roll forth, and the thump of the bass sound invades the body so that even walking happens in rhythm. For all that want and desire reality hits. It takes practice to learn the chords. No worries. One can learn to play the guitar in one day.

A music store online or out on some boulevard becomes a place where one needs to make a relationship with the staff. They know things and want one to succeed. Your success is their business. A beginning guitarist needs a good basic guitar. Walking around the store makes for many temptations, but staff can guide one to the best guitar for their individual body and needs.

First Position

The best position of a beginning guitarist is sitting down on a stool or wooden kitchen chair with no arms. A chair or stool with railings becomes preferable since it lets one get in a good position by propping one or both feet. Sit in the chair and elevate one or both knees above your hip just a bit. Notice the curve of the body of the guitar. Look at the sound hole where one will be strumming the strings. Place the curve of the guitar on the right thigh. Glance lovingly up the neck to the head where tuning keys lie. Place the left hand just below the head on the first fret. Now relax the body by taking some deep breaths.

Fingerings

A basic guitar has six strings-numbered. String one lies closest to a person’s feet and plays the high melodic E. String six lies closest to your head and plays the throbbing low bass note E. For the chord play in this article one needs string one, string two, and string three. Take the first finger and place the tip of it near the first fret bar on string two. Press firmly like when one hugs their favorite loved one. Use your finger or a pick and strum only the three bottom strings. Stroke downward in a steady rhythm paying attention to each string. The chord is modified C.

Roll the first finger down to string one. Only stroke the three bottom strings slowly and steadily. The name of this chord is modified G7. To play a song strum modified C four strokes and then change to modified G7 for four strokes. Continue stroking back and forth between the chord sets until smooth and silky.

Sheets

Music for guitar comes in a variety of ways and the music store whether online or on the strip will have choices for one. Standard formats come in sheets and have the music staff, the notes, and the chords. Most guitar players at the least like a line of lyrics with some slash marks and chords up above. Eventually a few tunes one will memorize. Guitar players like to do things in groups and share freely their techniques. So prepare for acquiring some interesting friends. Below is a folk song that uses the two chords from above. Slash marks mean strum on that word or if it has more than one slash mark; hold that word and strum the amount of slash marks shown. The chord above a word means play that chord and continue to strum that chord until the chord changes. If one does not know the tune it is found in a variety of ways on YouTube. Just type in a search engine box Tom Dooley YouTube and the songs will appear. Lyrics and chords are courtesy of www.cowboylyrics.com.

Finally there is a replacement for that silly video game known as Guitar Hero, with a more challenging one called Rocksmith by Ubisoft. Rocksmith looks like an authentic Guitar playing/learning tool, not a rock game that doesn’t insult actual guitarist everywhere!

Rocksmith can be used on a PC, Xbox or PS3 system. This will allow the beginner guitarist to plug in their real guitar, either electric or acoustic. The software is set up to automatically track your playing level. It adjusts the difficulty of playing by inserting more challenging licks to play.

The song that you are working on just won’t come to an abrupt end if you make a mistake. The Rocksmoth will make the song simpler for you to play. This is a good thing for beginner guitarists who might easily get frustrated at not being able to play a particular song at first. Ego’s can truly be a very fragile thing to work with.

On a side note: Gibson is now interested in getting into this project with both feet! According to word on the street, they want to work with Ubisoft to create a bundle to sell to consumers. This bundle would be the software and an actual Gibson guitar. Don’t expect a 1957 Gold Top here guys and girls! You get what you pay for but it does sound promising.

I can’t wait to see more about this device. At first glance it appears to be a fantastic gift to give someone who wants to play guitar and has the honest to goodness drive to do so.

Through good old Face Book I ran into an old guitar playing buddy of mine who now runs a music store called Selinger’s Music in Listowel (pronounced Lis-Twoll) Ontario. I’ve never been there before but if my buddy Al is the same kind of stand up guy he was when we were kidz then his store must truly rock.

Looking at a few pic’s from Selinger’s Music site, I spy some nice vintage axes hanging around the shop. He has a nice collection of Taylor acoustic guitars in all sizes. He also looks like he has a decent selection of amps and pedals as well. And speaking of pedals, the other part of the store he has that I like is his tech department that is dedicated to rebuilding vintage guitar pedals. It’s nice to see all those old school pedal(s) are there, still alive and kicking around!

If you check out this link you’ll see a picture of a very old pedal called the Silencer by Electro Harmonix that they are working on. I use to own one when I first started playing electric guitar and it brought back some painful memories. For the life of me I can’t remember what this pedal sounded like but I thought it looked real cool.

There’s an area in Selinger’s that highlights their drum section, which appears to be quite big. I’m not a drummer but what they had I was impressed with.

Last but not least you have to see this sign they have offering lessons to anyone purchasing any instrument, best ad I’ve seen in years.